Wednesday 30 August 2023. It's our last day down in Devon. Our trip today is to Exmouth with an included 2-hour cruise along the Jurassic Coast in a boat after lunch. I wasn't feeling so well and spent the whole time before the cruise just sitting on a bench in the Market Square, whilst Miss Franny alternately sat with me or went for a wander around the shops and market.
By lunchtime I was starting to feel better and managed to get seats on the boat out in the open but sheltered a bit by the enclosed space in front of us. Seating was on foldaway chairs, not the most comfortable or even unmoving seats to have on a boat perhaps, but we didn't run aground or meet any violent rocking motion caused by whales or the Kraken surfacing beneath us, so all was well.
The boat had both an enclosed cabin below and an open deck on top. The reason we went for the open deck was that the tide was out and this is where the gangplank led! As the boat filled up with people, passengers who wanted to sit with friends started moving the folding chairs about, blocking aisles and access for those still trying to get on...
The sun came out every now and then, turning the rocks a more vivid colour and we passed some impressive stacks - Harry's Rocks(?) - no because they are chalk not sandstone stacks. I'm not really sure whose they were, but they were the sort of thing I would have avoided getting too close to...
The Captain - didn't quite catch his name, Ahab or something(?) - turned the boat into the cliffs and the commentary mentioned kittywakes, shags and cormorants. Cormorants I can recognise but the others are just gulls and best avoided without suitable head covering and certainly not to be trusted near any fish and chips. Very congenial, but less so for the passengers trying to eat ice creams...
One woman lost hers altogether and there was much shrieking and wailing as it went over the side. Not all of it coming from the gulls either... In fact, in this case it was nothing to do with the gulls but more the fact that she turned her cone on its side to eat it horizontally. Gravity emptied the cone faster than she could...
We went past Budleigh Salterton, seen on our first full day of the holiday and turned round within sight of Sidmouth. The boat was shaped a bit like a brick so it wasn't the fastest thing on water. I presume it was a touch more streamlined under the waterline as otherwise we'd have felt quite a bit more motion. And probably not as dense as a brick or otherwise the motion would have been vertical...
Exmouth comes back into view eventually and the tide has come in a bit so there's more of a slope to the gangplank as we disembark. Andrew has the coach ready and waiting nearby and we head back to the hotel for our last evening.
Thursday 31 August 2023. 7:00am - cases outside our rooms. 8:00am - breakfast. 9:00am - bus! Clear instructions you would think. Even so apparently a woman announced she had to go back to her room after breakfast at 9:10. "No more than ten minutes please..." she was asked. "Oh... don't rush me! Don't rush me!" came the reply.
The other coach party in the hotel (from a different company) were going home half an hour earlier than we were. The coach driver, waiting for the last two passengers to come to the bus well beyond their deadline took the coach up the road to the turnround point saying to our driver, "They'll come running once I set off don't worry!" Sure enough they appeared like magic but he didn't stop and left them waiting and panicking whilst he turned round and came back down the seafront before he picked them up!
Here's our coach on the motorway services as we were on the last stop before before we started dropping off passengers back onto feeder minibuses which took them back to their homes. G-Line - I'd recommend them any time!
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